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THE HILLS ARE ALIVE To create greenery, I painted the scene’s grassy areas first. I didn’t paint the areas of the backdrop that would be covered with evergreens, because the tree cover is so thick that no ground is visible. This photo shows one of the major areas of dense evergreens added to the backdrop. The evergreen color is somewhat lighter than the future modeled trees will be, another way to create the illusion of distance. The vertical and horizontal streaks represent a forest road. EVERGREENS EVERYWHERE The dense forest I painted takes time but is well worth it. Use the same evergreen color from the previous step to add many individual trees, simple shapes done with a flick of a mediumsize filbert brush. This brush is a combination of a typical round brush that forms a point and a flat brush. I also painted in forest roads through the trees to cut up the hillside. To enhance the trees, don’t forget to paint subtle shadows with a dark evergreen color. This helps the backdrop look more detailed than it really is. These shadows are evident at the edges between the dense tree groups and the partial clearings. SIMPLE MOUNTAIN SHAPES Another area of Tom’s layout needed some distant mountains. I sketched the outline with chalk and added some light blue spray paint just above the horizon. I painted simple blue mountains in the distance using the chalk lines as a guide. Most of this paint was sky blue latex tinted with acrylic. I painted the mountaintops with light colors so they would appear far away; I used dark, earthy colors with the sky blue paint for the mountain range below in the foreground. Even if we stopped here, the mountain shapes don’t look bad. Sometimes these simple shapes are all you need for your backdrop. 10/04 • Model Railroader 75